


Industrious

by Dangersocks



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is a good scientist, Gen, M/M, Mind Control, Post-Episode: e025 One Year Later, Prompt Fic, Strexcorp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-20
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2018-01-02 03:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1051985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangersocks/pseuds/Dangersocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos is a good scientist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Industrious

He is going to see Cecil.

Today? Yes, today. The thought makes him happy. At the end of an industrious day, he gets to rest. And Cecil comes. And they lie together. 

Today.

Carlos checks the beakers on the hot plates and runs temperatures. He balances chemicals on scales and mixes them. He picks up a check-list and signs it. He is given a report and he corrects the mistakes. He helps his colleagues package up syringes into boxes and he makes sure they are delivered to the proper places. He calculates some math and makes changes to some hypothesises. 

It is work he always does. It is work he is good at. The questions come from outside of the lab and Carlos finds answers. Sometimes the questions are easy and he doesn’t think on them. He just pushes the clipboard through with the answer. Other times, he spends hours with his team. They run thought experiments and discuss how to problem solve.

Carlos sees the other scientists frown or smile, with bright or tired eyes behind their safety glasses. They are thinking about working hard. They are thinking about what comes after. They are thinking about today.

Today. He is going to see Cecil.

Carlos smiles too.

The room vibrates. For a moment, Carlos slips from his task so he can preserve the test tubes that rattle in their holders. Some have toxic chemicals and if they fall and shatter it may end badly. He should be wearing gloves and…

"Is that an earthquake?" someone asks, and Carlos doesn’t think it can be. Earthquakes…earthquakes…

When the shaking ceases, there is no damages to report. Carlos wants to go to the window. He seeks to look out but he knows there will only be sun and sky. A perfect day.

Today. 

He will see Cecil today, and the earthquake will be a story or it will not be a story. A part of Carlos thinks he can find out now. There is a way to find out now. Perhaps Cecil is talking, right now. 

He blinks and tries to problem solve. He is seeing Cecil today, so he should be industrious now. Productivity is happening now, so Carlos should…

"Uh?" comes a hesitant voice and Carlos turns to see a colleague holding a clipboard up. It is a new assignment. It is a new problem.

Carlos takes it absently and she smiles. Or she isn’t smiling. “Only three more hours to go,” she chirps, voice warbling. A strange bird is caught in her throat.

Carlos nods. Three hours. And then today ends, and he gets to go home. And rest. And Cecil. Today.

He looks at his watch and remembers it is somewhere else. 

Sand. Under…Carlos frowns and shakes his head. He opens the clipboard and finds a question. Deja vu: how much sand?

"Oh, this one will be easy," Carlos says to no one in particular. One just needs to calculate how much sand fills up a small volume container and then expand that to the volume of the desert. Math will fix this and all the required numbers are probably calculated somewhere. 

He can solve this in three hours. He can also check on the beakers again. In fact, he does. 

He balances chemicals on scales and mixes them. He picks up a check-list and signs it. He is given a report and he corrects the mistakes. He helps his colleagues package up syringes into boxes and he makes sure they are delivered to the proper places. He calculates some math and makes changes to some hypothesises. 

It is work he always does. It is work he is good at. The questions come from outside of the lab and Carlos finds answers. Sometimes the questions are easy and he doesn’t think on them, like calculating just how much sand exists in the world. He pushes the clipboard through with the answer and smiles when they tell him that in six more hours his work is done.

Then he will get to rest. Then Carlos will get to see Cecil. 

And they will lie together. And Carlos will pick the sand from the face of the watch he has given Cecil. And deep, intimately buried under the earth, Cecil will tell Carlos about earthquakes.

He is smiling. He is not smiling. He is not sure why he is not smiling. 

"Uh?" comes a hesitant voice and Carlos turns to see a colleague holding a clipboard up. It is a new assignment. It is a new problem.

He accepts the clipboard and frowns like she frowns. Warbles like she warbles. Glances at the window, closed and dark. Another sunny, perfect day.

Today?

Yes, today. At the end of an industrious day, he gets to rest. And Cecil comes. And they lie together. 

"Eight more hours," he is told. 

He smiles. He is going to see Cecil.

**Author's Note:**

> An anonymous prompt: Can you please write a story about Carlos being under Strex mind/medical control?
> 
> I've never had such a polite request from an anonymous person before.  
> I've never had any request from an anonymous person before.
> 
> For a quick one-off, I didn't expect that I'd like this as much as I do. I'll probably expand this story when NaNoWriMo is out of the way.


End file.
